Grime / Dubstep

It has, within the remit of this column, been an incredible year for music. The borders between relatively separate styles of bass music dissolved, leaving hundreds of islands of creativity connected like an archipelago of breathtaking music. Dubstep bled into juke and UK funky, UK funky into house and grime, grime into pop, pop into dubstep and so on.

The area that has shined brightest in 2010, what the year will be remembered for, is the currently nameless zone that, catalyzed by UK funky, grew out of disenchantment with dubstep's direction and the lack of dancefloor inertia in grime. Out of those negative situations came a new set of creativity, diversity, and possibilities; a fresh ecosystem-- a decentralized matrix of new idea clusters, rather than one dense defined new movement, as we're used to seeing.

Few epitomized what an incredible year 2010 was as DJ Oneman, this column's DJ of the year. When Loefah put him forward for Mary Anne Hobbs' Generation Bass showcase in 2008, his talent as a DJ was undeniable, yet mixing early DMZ releases into old UK garage records will only take you so far. Instead he spent the next two years walking a new path, eventually ushering in a new generation of producers and sounds distinct from the grime, funky, dubstep, and garage scenes that inspired them. By summer, armed with peerless mixing skills and new Serato tricks, Oneman would reach Slimzee circa 2003, Hatcha '04, or DMZ '06 levels of creativity, putting clear water between himself and the very hot competition. He broke one of the records of the year, Girl Unit's "Wut", and launched his 502 label with two fresh new artists, Fis-T and Jay Weed.

There were many others in incredible form throughout 2010. The Night Slugs camp run by Bok Bok and L-Vis 1990 unleashed a whole phalanx of next-level records, from Girl Unit's "Wut" and "IRL" to Jam City's "Ecstasy Refix", Lil Silva's "Seasons", Velour's "She Wore Velour", and L-Vis' remix of MJ Cole and Wiley's "From the Drop". As a whole the label found a very creative space between grime and house, built on percussive urgency and saturated synth colors. That they're already in a position to release their first compilation CD is amazing, considering the label is only a year old.

Based in Scotland and born out of several labels, Glasgow's Numbers imprint also had a strong year, bookended by Deadboy's "If U Want Me"-- a sour, UKG indebted slab of 'wot do you call it?'-- and Untold and Roska's dark funky jam "Myth". Numbers' Jackmaster also increased his capital as an A-list DJ, finding the space between the new and the upfront, between house, funky, techno, and beyond. Also great from Deadboy was his piano-lead refix of Drake's "Fireworks".

The Hessle camp built on their momentum, with Ben UFO competing with the best in this new DJs sphere, dropping the bpms to mix house with UK funky, techno with techy dubstep. It certainly helped that his label mate Ramadanman came into such amazing form, upping his game from 2009. Consider his output: "Glut" [Hemlock], "Grab Somebody" [white], "Work Them" [Swamp 81], a six-track EP for Hessle, as well as a Pearson Sound 12" and a breathtaking 110 bpm mix for Jamie Woon's "Night Air".

"Work Them" illustrates how juke infiltrated the UK's consciousness via the Swamp 81 "dark 808ish" stable. "Glut" got hybridized with producer S-X's "Woooo" to find middle ground with grime. The Jamie Woon remix was so slow it couldn't be mixed into any of the above, yet it's so emotive it's up there with the best of Burial's work. Some of Ramadanman's drum programming hinted at jungle, increasing the percussive intensity without being overtly housey, helping his productions find new grit and edge.

Every angle from this cluster of creativity suggested a new direction. Feeling slow house like Ramadanman's Woon remix? What about Falty DL's amazing 110bpm output "Voyager" and "Odyssey" [Planet Mu], which took synth jams and exploited the space and swing at such slow tempos. If you're down there, and thinking about space and intergalactic voyaging, why not try Space Dimension Controller's "Kaleidoscopic Ecstasy" or Quest's "Smooth Skin" [Deep Medi], while asking yourself how did we get from grime and dubstep to 110bpm house in one continuum?

Much of Alex Nut's Eglo records drops the bpms, but what it lacked in tempo it made up for in quality, connecting to the house and funky creations that were bubbling under on Rinse. He also connected with the global funk and hip-hop community, be that Dâm-Funk, Benji B, or Low End Theory in L.A. Even Theo Parrish was playing Fatima's Eglo record-- do endorsements get better than that?

Eglo's secret weapon is Arp 101. You can hear connections with the old school synth/808 sound or the Brainfeeder camp, but really cosmic jams like "Dead Leaf" felt like they were in their own galaxy. By contrast, Eglo's bright, shining star is FunkinEven, an artist who manages to take fairly established styles (house, acid, funk, hip-hop) and come up with creations of dazzling simplicity and undeniable identity. "She's Acid" has an infectious slinky groove while "Heart Pound" does what it says on the tin. Yes he probably should be paying Phuture royalties, but then so should the rest of house music. If he drops an album half as charismatic as these two singles, without falling into the 1980s slow-jam trap, 2011 will be his.

One area of exciting productivity this year was how certain producers treated vocals and songs in the broadest possible context. Darkstar, James Blake, and Mount Kimbie all found their own paths but each placed the voice at the heart of what they do. Darkstar's debut, North, was peerless in 2010, this column's album of the year. Mournful, synthy, and emotive, it used songwriting structures without ever falling into the usual traps. Mount Kimbie's debut Crooks and Lovers was varied, taking in some underwhelming electro-acoustic experiments but also the joyful vox-jam "Mayor". Working in adjacent territories saw Bristol's Guido release his debut album, Anidea, Yolanda providing the big vocal on "Way U Make Me Feel".

But the man with the most stellar trajectory did so by building a jaw-dropping underground canon before pushing his own vocals to the fore. The forces in the indie-focused music industry seemed to be waiting for James Blake, and as 2010 progressed he began to arrive. His CMYK EP mangled R&B vocals, while Klavierwerke connected with Mount Kimbie's more out-there experiments, but it's tracks like "The Bells Sketch" and his refix of Trim that truly dropped underground jaws. Shifting his own gospel-like voice to the fore on the Feist cover "Limit to Your Love" took him into an entirely new, far larger audience. The world awaits his debut album.

A few years ago the Blunted Robots camp were arguably a few years ahead of the game, so while this year lots of people played catchup, they quietly upped their game. Brackles remains one of the tightest DJs around but it was his productions that continued to impress, most notably his refix of Cassie and "Good Foundations", a collaboration with Shortstuff. He also mixed Songs for Endless Cities, Vol. 1, perhaps the best compilation CD of this sphere of creativity to date. Mickey Pearce unleashed some truly jaw-dropping beats, like his refixes of Redlight ft Ms Dynamite and Cassie. Deploying offkey, tuff bleeps-- and leaving space between them-- it used the empty shell of house but built its own rhythmic matrix comparable only to Untold's work. This might be a realm inspired by house and funky, but it's so much more.

Ten years on from the darkening of UK garage, many of dubstep's earliest innovators profited from the symmetry that saw house and funky being given the rough treatment with others digging around for garage's future. As such it was a great year for three of dubstep's founding fathers. El-B came back strong and swung with the vocal anthem "I Feel". Horsepower Productions completed their third album Quest for the Sonic Bounty and while it lacks a stand-out anthem, it works wonderfully as a longplayer, rolling out long seven-minute jams that transport you to different worlds. Not to be outdone, Zed Bias returned twice over with his Maddslinky alias, re-issuing Make Your Peace, one of only three albums to be completed by "Roots of..." pioneers at the time. He followed this up with the fresh album Make a Change, showcasing his diverse vision as a producer. A new album is due in 2011.

Garage legend MJ Cole fired on all cylinders, collaborating with Zed Bias on "Big in the Game" before unleashing his eski-funky anthem "Volcano Riddim" and 130 halftime collaboration with Wiley, "From the Drop"-- backed with an amazing L-Vis 1990 remix. Very few people did 2step well in 2010, despite a flurry of often tepid or stiff efforts, but MJ Cole's remix of Zed Bias ft. Omar's "Special" was everything its title promised. The only other people outside of Sully and SBTRKT to nail 2step were C.R.S.T., a production quartet that with tracks like "Bump", made other people's 2step efforts look silly. Finally, Skream's "Give You Everything" should not go unrecognized.

The darker side of UK funky flourished this year, led by Scratcha DVA and his raw anthem "Natty" and smooth sister version "Just Vybe ft Fatima" [Hyperdub]. The original punctuates periods of flow with shuddering counter-rhythms, while the Fatima vocal takes things to West London, circa the height of broken beat. Hyperdub had an impressive year with the bassier end of funky, what with DVA collaborator's "Boomslang" by LV. A production trio best known for their dubbier beats, "Boomslang" added a South African vocal twist to UK funky, while tracks like "Keep it on the DL" and "Zharp" suggested exciting new directions.

Dubstep has never been bigger. American R&B superstars know what it is and its DJs, like Chef and Plastician, play to massive audiences, like the 30,000 people at their Exit Festival sets. Their school friends Benga and Skream took it live to festivals as Magnetic Man and had UK hits. Skream was invited to Buckingham Palace. The genre had its own first lady, Katy B. Rusko collaborated with Britney. Seal wasn't too sure about the genre, but the fact that he'd even heard of it was insane. Very little seemed impossible anymore for the genre that began as a small collection of friends from Croydon who DJed together once a month in east London ten years ago that no one wanted to know about. Now dubstep is one of the default dance music of choice for say, the west coast of America, or Friday night out at a superclub in London.

On the flipside, "dubstep," in what it means to its new found mass audience, has never been more dumbed down or formulaic. If someone finds dubstep for the first time by typing it into YouTube, they find mostly brostep idiocy by people who had no part in building the scene nor brought any original ideas with them when they arrived. In 2006, the tipping point year for dubstep, Loefah said in a documentary one of the reasons dubstep needed to be built was because the genres near it had become "formula-ed." Four years later, large parts of dubstep are now fully "formula-ed."

After a period of dysfunctional relationship, in 2010 there's been an amicable divorce between those artists who make "dubstep" and those who believed in its spirit of bass, experimentation, and reduced boundaries, and both parties are much happier for it. Those who it is most concerning for, however, are the increasingly smaller number of dubstep artists who have stuck to their guns, working on interesting dark music at around 140bpm, without making wobble.

2010 has thrown up some gems in this area, in spite of not because of the comically macho, moronic end of dubstep. Silkie for example continues in great form with "80's Baby" on Deep Medi-- a gem. SP's stripped back halfstep suited Youngsta's sets well. Skream's LP had some gems on it while Joe and Blawan found amazing new percussive intricacies on Hessle. Pinch pulled off a massive coup, flipping dubstep remixing on its head by getting dub legend Scientist to remix a suite of dubstep's finest. Fellow Bristolian Peverelist put together the definitive document to the city's dubstep output,Worth the Weight. Mala's wonderfully packaged longplayer Return II Space created the kinds of immense outpourings of joy last seen for a Burial album.

The honest question remains though, how much creative mileage is there left in dark 140bpm halfstep beats? In the face of Hyperdub and Night Slug's neon synths, of UK funky's unabashed rude enthusiasm, and a myriad of colourful creative options in between, plus keeping in mind an urge to maintain a healthy distance from the wild thrashings of the bro-steppers, dark and moody often felt tired in 2010. Given different aesthetics have a way of swinging in and out of fashion, perhaps the pendulum will swing back towards dark, minimal and understated in 2011, but so far there's no sure sign.

The one label that did dark great in 2010 is the man who warned against formulas himself, Loefah and his imprint Swamp 81. What began with the stripped back minimal halfstep of Kryptic Minds, its fifth release and arguably the year's most influential, Addison Groove's "Footcrab", flipped dubstep on its head by introducing it to Chicago ghettohouse hybrid juke. An anthem of infectious simplicity, its use of juke drums suggested new possibilities, as the next Swamp 81 release "Work Them" by Ramadanman demonstrated. No doubt American listeners looked on amused, given ghettohouse has its roots in the early 90s, but following "Footcrab" and some very pro-active A&R from Mike Paradinas at Planet Mu, compiling several juke CDs, the sound has a massively increased presence in the UK bassphere in 2010.

Finally no 2010 round up should go without recognizing one, now sadly departed broadcaster's efforts. Four years ago Mary Anne Hobbs had the vision to see ammunition being stockpiled at DMZ and lit the touchpaper with her "Dubstep Warz" show on Radio 1. The results were explosive and the global scene we see today is in many ways shrapnel of her detonation. This year she took the brave decision to step down from Radio 1 to teach. For everything you did for the scene Mary Anne Hobbs, dubstep salutes you.

Grime

It's been a strange year for grime, one of fragmentation and progress in multiple, often contradictory directions. In essence grime 2010's efforts were focused in quite different ways: the commercial pop charts, DJ-centric instrumental club tracks, and the next wave of underground MCs.

With Tinchy Stryder one of if not the top selling act of 2009-- in any UK genre-- it was perhaps inevitable that people would attempt to reproduce his success. So in 2010 we saw Chipmunk, Wiley, Skepta, Tinie Tempah, Roll Deep, and Tinchy himself achieve massive, mainstream chart success, with multiple no. 1's between them-- and that's not even mentioning Dizzee Rascal, something that seemed unthinkable as little as 18 months ago. It's as if the dysfunctional grime/A&R couple, who split up after Dizzee Rascal's Mercury Prize, finally found how to get on in 2010.

There are multiple ways to view this love-in. On one hand it's hard to complain, as people rightly do, that the UK is terrible at breaking homegrown black artists (while fawning over U.S. ones) yet put down the poppy side of grime. And it is heartwarming seeing musicians coming from the most disadvantaged parts of London become successful artists in the face of the many music industry glass ceilings. A moment that signified how much commercial recognition meant to the scene was Skepta unveiling his Twitter-brokered official remix of Diddy's "Hello Good Morning" on Logan's show. "This is it... history in the making right here!" says Skepta. Simply hearing Diddy say "Team UK stand up, it's the grime mix" seemed to be a moment of massive validation for the scene.

It is however, a valid question to ask, "How much do these chart pop-grime hits have to do with grime anymore?" Very little seems to be the answer, musically at least, if you care about grime as raw, unadulterated street music. Roll Deep, arguably the greatest grime crew of all time (only Nasty comes close), went a long way to squander their incredible grime legacy, with a series of watered-down chart hits. With other grime acts-- Mz Bratt, Devlin, Griminal-- looking to replicate these acts success in 2011, a scene divide between the have-pops and the have-nots looks set to widen.

So, if you were a grime artist but unwilling to go pop, what do you do? This question is especially relevant if you're not an MC. In 2010, certain sections of the scene began re-negotiating the power balance, as negotiated at the genre's inception, between the MCs, DJs, and producers. Buoyed by the international club success of its cousin, dubstep, grime's DJs and producers began moving in their own direction, regardless of whether the MCs were coming with them-- and often times, very much without them.

For the genesis of this movement you can perhaps look back to the influence Joker had on grime, as he burst through dubstep in 2009 (he's in essence a grime producer, just don't tell those dubstep purists, OK?). The influence of his success was catalytic on producers like Terror Danjah, who's retrospective on Planet Mu showcased his peerless back catalog to a new audience before following it up with his diverse "Undeniable" [Hyperdub]. Yet in truth, the masterminds behind this new grime movement were up-and-coming DJs, Elijah and Skilliam from Butterz. They didn't care much about beef and, while other grime fans worried about who-said-what-to-which-MC, let their actions do the talking.

On paper it hardly seems like a revolutionary concept: start a label, release new music, DJ it on Rinse FM and in clubs, and build bridges with forward-thinking labels in other scenes. Yet few of the then A-list DJs were doing it, and almost none were bringing in new producers, which is at least consistent with grime's fairly poor track record on collaboration and scene unity. Instead up stepped Elijah and Skilliam, and through Grimeforum.com found the freshest, hungriest producers like Swindle, Royal T, SRC, TRC, Mr. Mitch, Moony, Teeza, and Kaychi, backed of course by Terror Danjah and his sidekick, D.O.K. With already established producers like Rude Kid, DJ Spooky, and Teddy making club-friendly beats, suddenly the movement began to gather momentum, shifting the focus from grime producers being slaves to the next mix CD, to making, vibrant, energetic grime with club impact in mind. Just check out their Rinse FM mixes here for evidence.

Perhaps their most inspirational move this year was to invent open-source grime, albeit accidentally. What began as an attempt to gather a number of remixes for Terror Danjah's "Air Bubble", turned into an amazing experiment, as the parts for the track were given away online and producers were invited to remix it. While some fairly high profile names remixed it (Starkey, Geiom....), the parts began to act like a homing signal for new talent. Try Dark Tone Sound's remarkable remix for example or Teeza's skippy version.

The present is pretty bright for this corner of grime, with the national and international DJ circuit being successfully infiltrated by Elijah and Skilliam in a way many other grime DJs haven't. The future is more interesting. As producers shift their focus from backing tracks for mixtapes to club bangers and stand-alone instrumentals, the big question is can this fledgling side-movement develop new ideas, directions and possibilities of its own? Can for example, it master less frenetic moods, rather than just being pedal-to-the-metal 100 mph at all times? Can it bypass the "halfstep" drum pattern that so-suits MCs? Can it work with vocals in ways that don't make it subservient to them? Certainly the ideas of Swindle and Mr. Mitch hint at new directions, with touches of cheeky swing and jolly triplets from the latter and a sleazy, almost funk feel from the former. Because let's be honest, if Joker can explode on the global scene, then the Butterz movement has every chance to come through too.

Other trends in 2010 grime included the fairly transparent move of MCs jumping on wobbly dubstep tracks, which served to make the fairly terrible wobble track better and the MC sound worse. Though you can at least be thankful the fad for jumping on electro house has passed. There was a time, five or so years ago, when grime looked down its nose at dubstep so it's embarrassing to see such a proud and headstrong scene begging to be its friend.

Another welcome trend was the return of the "versioned riddim," where just as in dancehall every MC jumps on one instrumental to do a version, the most celebrated of which was Wiley's 2003 "Ice Rink" vocal. In 2010 however, producer S-X came from nowhere with his debut release to become a phenomenon with his "Woooo" riddim. The fact that its glacial synths and 808 sub kick seem to recall Wiley's eski sound is mere pleasing historical symmetry. Nonetheless a track quite so minimal could easily have become yet another ignored gem but instead, as MC after MC began to vocal it, momentum was gained so that nearly 50 grime MCs vocalled it, there was a UK funky version and Ramadanman hybridized it with his own track "Glut". Most people, including 276,000 YouTube viewers, seemed to think that D Double's E version was the one.

Other highlights included P-Money's clash with Ghetts, who himself had a strong mixtape out this year, Calm Before the Storm, Trim collaborating with loads of exciting producers from outside of grime like Becoming Real and Mumdance, DJ Spooky's productions, radio show and historyofgrime tweets, B-Live's video for "Modern Warfare", Starkey's collaboration with P-Money "Numb" from the album Ear Drums and Black Holes. Wiley's adoption of UStream-- who needs pirate radio when you can broadcast your life in realtime video-- and Twitter and its use to liberate his own music.

Logan Sama is launching a grime portal producing documentary pieces, live events coverage, editorial articles, and interviews to give the world a point of reference for all things grime in 2011. He's taking bookings for only £300 in the UK until the end of January to promote it. bookings@logansama.com.

Road Rap

"There was a shift of power," King, UKrapmusic.com

The elephant in the room for grime is its cousin, road rap. There are those who make the argument that grime has lost grassroots street support, or at least certain amount of it, especially in places like Brixton and Peckham, South London.

"The real issue at the heart of the demise of grime was as simple as the kids in the broken council estates in the ends, who made the genre what it was originally, becoming disillusioned by the leaders of the genre defecting to perceived greener pastures as soon as they had the chance," explains road rap expert King from UKrapmusic.com. "The artists desire for monetary compensation for the efforts they put in to the music rather than doing it out of love for the genre, which was what had happened initially, left a sour taste in the mouth of fans."

The movement began around five years ago with crews like PDC (Public Demand Cartel aka Poverty Driven Children), SMS, and Giggs' SN1. Now in many London areas, instead of grime crew every estate has a rap one, and in many ways it is similar to grime: The focus on bravado and ultra-violence to an endless list of opponents, the reputation economy where rep and street fame is the currency, the London slang and blatant crime and drug trade references, conspicuous consumerism and consumption. In parallels with the way the dubbage/Circle sound returned to the global house template for inspiration in the face of UK funky, road rap MCs have returned to hip hop in the face of grime and like LDN re-appropriating house it does raise questions around how wholesale ownership and reputation can ever be established in the shadow of such dominant global cousins, or whether it has yet to establish sufficient unique identity.

It's been an odd year for UK funky. Having catalyzed so much creativity within adjacent genres, most notably the 130-bpm experiments of Oneman, Night Slugs, Brackles, et al., when you return to funky itself, you wonder how healthy a year it has had relative to its previous glories.

The shining light is pirate radio, as ever the heartbeat of so many of London's genres. Marcus Nasty's show on Rinse FM remained a flagship, with Ill Blu, Funkystepz, and Roska making regular appearances. And alongside the established giant came new talent Live FM UK, whose raw East London style epitomized the uncontainable creative force that is pirate radio. Rowdy, chaotic, and in the best possible sense, rude, the must-hear show was Topsy and Petchey's-- despite playing house and funky in such a ruff, East London way, they instantly endear while simultaneously making you question whether this was pretty much grime or not.

Roska had a great year after releasing his debut album and playing one of Europe's greatest electronic festivals, Sonar. Marcus Nasty has played internationally, not least the summer holiday season in Aiya Napa and the other Greek and Cypriot resorts. Ill Blu continued their great form with a blistering output of dubs, commercial remixes, and releases on labels like Hyperdub, as did Funkystepz, who look set to follow Ill Blu with a release on Kode9's imprint.

Many of the tracks played on radio in the first half of the year were aggregated here, but if you didn't use pirate radio as the only measure, it may have felt like UK funky in 2010 hit a plateau, that the rate of change and new ideas slowed down, or at least stayed the same as last year. The scene hasn't capitalized on the UK's national club infrastructure, let alone moved into the international one in the way house or dubstep are able to. It also seemed disinterested in making its music easy to buy, either on vinyl or digital, in the way other genres have and do. For a genre so influenced by R&B and songwriting, it's had precious little chart success, certainly nothing as yet to compare to its older cousin, UK garage, with much of the arrangement quite singularly focused on the linear DJ sets.

Much of UK funky's core London audience seemed to be put off by its rougher edge and flirtation with MCs and began migrating to the more classic house-centric styles of club Circle and their dubbage sound, which shifted the focus back to long rolling 4x4 arrangements instead of bass drop culture and soca beats. Circle sets would range from the vocal (Kentphonic "Hiya Kaya [Rocco Deep Mix]") to the mind-bendingly percussive (Rishi Romero "African Forest"), but always remained rolling.

That funky was able to accommodate ever more ruff MCs, more saccharine songs and yet more driving drums, all unleashed through the medium of pirate radio, it suggests there's a great deal more to come from the genre in 2011. The question remains will it be able to do it on multiple fronts (national and international clubs, across singles and albums, commercially...), rather than just on radio.

Finally the radio station that has done more than any for house and funky, Rinse FM, passed a milestone in 2010-- as if having acts like Katy B, Skream, Benga, Skepta, and Roll Deep litter the charts wasn't enough-- by making the transition from pirate to legal. Getting an official place in the London spectrum is a spectacularly difficult task, given its output and the homogeneity of the rest of the dial, so the significance of this is not to be understated. With community rather than commerce the focus of their license, having their future assured can only be a positive thing for forward-looking music fans.